What is Reasonable Religious Accommodation?

What You Need to Know About Reasonable Religious Accommodation

Federal law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to protected classes. Here’s everything you need to know about reasonable religious accommodation.

Religious accommodations are any reasonable change to the work environment to allow an employee who sincerely holds religion to observe their religious practices. Religious accommodations may include schedule changes or alterations to the employers’ dress and grooming standards. Employees do not have to implement religious accommodation if it causes undue hardship to the company.

Religious Accommodations

An applicant or employee can practice or observe their religion at the workplace. If an employer denies an employee this right, the employee violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires employers to reasonably accommodate current and prospective employees’ religious practices unless the accommodation would cause undue hardship to the employer.

Reasonable accommodations for religion are any changes in the work environment or the way the company customarily operates to allow the employee to observe the religious practices. The employee must sincerely hold the religious practice to receive the accommodation.
One can sincerely hold religious practices even if they recently adopted the practice, observe it inconsistently, or if the practice differs from a religion’s commonly held practices.

Title VII does not consider social, political, or economic philosophies or religious beliefs. Protected religious beliefs resulting in accommodations extend to organized religions like Christianity, and new, uncommon, informal religious beliefs a small number of people may hold.

Common Religious Accommodations

Religious accommodations may include:

Schedule changes,
Leave for religious observances,
Changes to dress and grooming practices to include religious dress or styles, or
Observance of a religious prohibition against wearing certain garments.

Religious accommodation examples include:

Changing a schedule for a Catholic employee to attend church on Good Friday,
Excusing an atheist from a religious invocation at the beginning of staff meetings,
Allowing Jewish employees to wear a yarmulke,
Allowing Muslim employees to wear a headscarf,
Allowing Rastafarian employees to wear dreadlocks, or
Allowing Sikh employees to maintain uncut hair and beard.

How to Get a Religious Accommodation

Employees who need dress, grooming, or schedule accommodations should notify the employer that they need an accommodation for religious reasons. The employee requesting accommodation should explain their religious beliefs and which workplace rules should change to accommodate the belief. The employee may suggest accommodations.

The employer is entitled to ask questions and seek clarification about the employee’s religious beliefs and how they conflict with current work requirements. The employer must provide an effective accommodation to the employer and does not need to grant the employee’s specific requested accommodation.

Undue Hardship and Religious Discrimination

Employers do not have to accommodate an employee’s religious beliefs or practices if doing so would cause undue hardship to the employer.

The accommodation may cause undue hardship if it:

Costs the employer more than a minimal amount,
Compromises workplace safety,
Decreases workplace efficiency,
Violates a seniority system
Infringes on the rights of other employees,
Jeopardizes security
Requires other employees to do more than their share of hazardous or burdensome work.

Employers who refuse to accommodate an employee’s religious belief or practice may violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and may be liable for religious discrimination in the workplace.

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